Wishing Away

Chapter Seven

JOURNAL ENTRY NO. 3.1

To the Midnight Blue,

Hold it, hold it, hold it...HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! Tell me this is a joke, right? You, the Midnight, couldn't be this absurd, right? Yeah, perhaps this is all a dream I have had while I bumped my head on the table. It must be like that. Like in the movies. Then I get to wake up with a huge lump in my forehead from getting hit by a book squarely in the face by Mr. Hermes. After that, perhaps I'll get reprimanded. That'll happen, right? Then I'll laugh so hard about my idiocy because when I pinch myself right now, I'll wake up from this amusing joke.

I pinch myself once. Nothing happened.

I pinch myself twice. Still nothing happened.

Panic rose in my throat. I pinch myself once again, hoping that I will wake up.

The look of horror synonymous to the person in Edvard Munch's The Scream was written across my face. IT'S NOT WORKING!!!

Holy mother of pearl, does this mean, it's real?!

A tug was felt on the left sleeve of Rhianna's uniform. "Rhianna, we have to go out and ask the seatworks from our English, History and Mathematics teachers. There's no time to be sitting around, writing in your diary about how happy you are to be together with me as a class rep."

Rhianna gave Davis the evil eye. "There are three misconceptions I would like to clarify: First, this is not a diary. Second, the thing I care about you being my co-class rep is that you won't ditch your duties and dump everything at me. Third," she smacked him hard in the head with a roll of paper, "get off your high horse and break a neck! For your information, I don't fall for conceited, arrogant twerps."

Instead of being offended, Davis gave her a toothy grin. "What's with all the words? How can you actually avoid making sentences without the letter L? You even went too far so as to say 'break a neck' instead of 'break a leg'."

"That phrase you mentioned has a definition synonymous to 'do your best', am I correct?" Rhianna retorted coldly, "that is the perfect antonym for 'break a neck'. The line is to be taken as it is. I hope with utmost sincerity that you do so."

Rhianna, what the hell are you doing? You were supposed to keep silent in times like this! Rhianna scolded herself, wanting to smack her stupid mouth for behaving out of the line. You were supposed to thank him, not yell at him!

Since she can't stand herself being around Davis any longer, she stormed out of her classroom without looking back—planning to collect the seatworks from their teachers without Davis accompaniment. Whether Davis chased after her or not, she didn't care.

"Hey Rhianna, wait up!" Davis called out from the classroom.

He did.

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They managed to successfully take the seatworks from their teachers. The whole trip across the various faculty departments was made in silence. Davis probably realized how ticked off Rhianna was at him.

It remained as that, until Rhianna saw the teacher who was the harbinger of her demise.

"Hello, Rhianna. It's a pleasure to see you again," a teacher named Mr. Charles Leroy greeted with a wide smile. Rhianna always found his smile suspicious, as though she was expecting him to literally stab her the moment she turned his back on him. He was a strict disciplinarian, with a meticulous attention to detail. It really showed in the way he slicked back his hair—making sure that no strand goes out of place. For Rhianna, he looked amusing because it looked like a cow had licked his head, thinking it was some sort of Leroy lollipop.

Rhianna felt as if frost crept from the ground and found its way to her throat. Her insides were frozen and she couldn't speak as fear consumed her insides. But she managed to regain composure and nodded respectfully. "No sir, I am most honored to be at your presence."

Mr. Leroy laughed so hard. Rhianna's eyes twitched wondering what kind of verbal attack he was going to throw at her again.

"Enjoy your days of splendor while it lasts. I will destroy you Rhianna Lee. I will bring about your demise."

She opted it was wise not to speak. She dragged Davis by the hand without saying anything, rendering him no choice but to follow on. When Mr. Leroy was out of sight, she halted in her tracks and sighed.

"Hey, you've been clutching my hand for quite a while now, you know?"

Hearing those words made Rhianna snap back to reality. She realized that she had been spacing out for a long time. And she was holding Davis' hand at that!

God, this is so embarrassing, she said to herself.

"Sorry about that," she let go of his hand, not daring to look at him in the eye.

"Who was that guy?" Davis asked.

Her brow furrowed, not exactly wanting to explain herself. She was too vulnerable in front of Davis. Her feelings were seeping out like gas trapped in a container—evident for Davis to see.

"He was a teacher of mine when I was a freshman. As you might have noticed, his name contained a considerable amount of Ls to make it sound outrageous. I recited his name without thinking, only to realize how absurd it sounded. Of course, our classmates made a raucous banter about it."

"I see. He must've hated you for the humiliation you've cause him."

At that moment, Rhianna expected Davis to tease her again about her rolling her Ls. But, for some reason, he took the situation seriously and didn't even bother to plague her about it.

"You're right. He has been searching in desperation for methods to bring me down. It was hard but I managed to breeze pass his staged accusations. But someday, I fear that he would succeed."

Davis ruffled Rhianna's hair gently—making her heart skip a beat. "As long as you're in the right, you would surely be fine. No one's a match for your genius, be it a normal student or the most prestigious teacher ever."

"Enough with your sugar-coated words," Rhianna tried to say meanly but she couldn't help but smile, "We need to hurry. There's that meeting we have to attend this afternoon."

"About that..." Davis had a panicky look on his face that Rhianna couldn't help but arch her eyebrows. "I wasn't really planning to attend. I still have something to do. I'm so sorry, I'll make it up to you, I swear!"

Before Rhianna can even open her mouth to object, he sped off in the opposite direction and disappeared into thin air.

Rhianna sighed in exasperation. "Geez! Just when he was being such a good guy, he morphs into a jerk again. God, this guy's so confusing! I just don't understand him!"